Business diary

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Image 1 of 2

Aishwarya Rai

Edited by Robert Watts

12:01AM GMT 27 Nov 2005

Business diary

Edited by Robert Watts

(Filed: 27/11/2005)

The sheriff polices the Supperclub

Scenes of horizontal enjoyment not seen in London since Roman times are set to return thanks to Aim-listed Oak Holdings. The company is to unleash the Supperclub, one of the most eccentric venues in Amsterdam, in EC1.

The unique feature of Supperclub is that instead of sitting at tables, diners recline on beds and cushions. Once the Roman-style feasting is over, the club side of the venue comes to the fore. There is also a stage for "performances": recent entertainment at the Amsterdam venue included a naked madam being smeared with chocolate.

However, with members of society as upstanding as St John Hartnell OBE, a former High Sheriff of Bristol, on Oak's board we're sure it will all be done in the best taste.

Hartnell, whose other clubs are the Garrick and MCC, may wish to imbibe with care when he visits. The cloakrooms at the Amsterdam venue are labelled "Homo" and "Hetero", with ladies and gents free to choose which they use. Classy.

Miss World is immortalised in oil

Cairn Energy has a creative way of naming its oilfields. The Scottish oil and gas company, led by the slick former rugby international Bill Gammell, names its explorations after Indian goddesses. Mangala, the field that transformed Cairn from a minnow into an FTSE100 giant, is the name of the goddess of power. Another field is called Vandana, the goddess of wisdom.

But our theological expertise has been rather stretched by a field called Aishwarya. It's a name that sounds rather familiar … oh yes, isn't there a former Miss World called Aishwarya Rai ? Cairn tells us the name emanated from an impromptu meeting conducted at 30,000 feet.

Or to put it more transparently, a group of gushing Cairn execs bumped into the delectable Miss Rai on a plane and felt, well, inspired. "We name our fields after goddesses - living and dead goddesses," blushes our man at the well.

In vino veritas via Hyde Park Corner

The Lanesborough Hotel on Hyde Park Corner hosted a Claret Club dinner this week at which wine industry luminaries shared a glass with some of the City's finest. The oenophiles included Veronique Drouhin of the Burgundy house and Ann Colgin, whose Napa Valley confections fetch $125 a bottle.

Among the financial bigwigs enjoying the Montrachet, Marquis de Laguiche was Oliver Pawle, vice chairman of UBS's investment banking division (he's also chairman of the City spinners Financial Dynamics). The event was brimming with senior private equity honchos from Pi Capital and a gaggle of Goldman Sachs bankers.

Claret Club founder Denis Houles is married to a Goldmanite, and claims that money (membership costs £1,000 a year, plus £250 per dinner) is not his prime motivation. "I give people what money can't buy," he says.

We're sure we overheard the Goldman gang whispering of buying football clubs and a hot pharmaceuticals flotation coming up from the Pi Capital side. Or was that just the 1962 Bas-Armagnac talking?

An Apple a day...

Paul Smith, Sir Terence Conran, Lord Foster and a phalanx of other design gurus descended on Downing Street last week to persuade the chancellor to encourage businesses to be more creative. One of the delegation was Jonathan Ive, the brain behind the iPod. Brown apparently said the latest model was very pretty but something of a rip-off.

So those sweeties at Apple sent him one gratis. "The chancellor has been sent a Nano by Apple … and he will be keeping it," our man at the Treasury grumbles. "But he's sent a cheque for its value to the manufacturer." How prudent.